WestJet😡

[MamaLema]

We booked a flight before Covid for June 2020. We had to cancel for obvious reasons. I applied for a refund in June 2021.

It is 7 months later and they just today sent me an email saying they are not refunding because they will only do it for schedule changes. We cancelled because the border was closed. I’m so frustrated with them

 

[CanucksRock]

The border was never closed to flights. Airlines canceled a tonne of flights and there was a false assumption that you could not fly their, but the border was not closed to the US via air.

I had a flight in April 2020 - I got a refund because the airline canceled the flight.

 

[wdwmom3]

Like the other poster said they border was never really closed. You could fly no problem. Unfortunately if you decided to cancel on your own all you get I a credit.

 

[mjhtvchick]

We booked a flight before Covid for June 2020. We had to cancel for obvious reasons. I applied for a refund in June 2021.

It is 7 months later and they just today sent me an email saying they are not refunding because they will only do it for schedule changes. We cancelled because the border was closed. I’m so frustrated with them

Yep, same thing happened with me - I have tried several times to get a refund with no luck - my travel bank credit was due to expire this July and I did manage to get them to extend that for another year.

 

[Frozen2014]

Strange. We had similar scenario of dates and had no issue getting a refund. In fact, we thought it was credit so tried to use it on a new flight and they cancelled our booking and said we are giving you a direct refund. Then you can rebook. Refund didn't take long. For us, the original WestJet flight was booked for August 2020 (booked before covid). New WestJet flights booked a month or two ago for August 2022. No issue with them.

 

[Silvermist999]

I also tried to get a refund for our March 2020 flights. But nope, only credits. Then we booked for this March using those credits. And looks like we will be cancelling again. Why does this have to be so difficult to get a refund when we are cancelling for obvious reasons?

 

[wdwmom3]

I also tried to get a refund for our March 2020 flights. But nope, only credits. Then we booked for this March using those credits. And looks like we will be cancelling again. Why does this have to be so difficult to get a refund when we are cancelling for obvious reasons?

Because you didn’t book a refundable fare which are more expensive.

 

[shaunacb]

Air Canada is even worse now - at least Westjet will give a full travel bank amount even for a basic fare. It looks like Air Canada has cancellation penalties for the cheaper fares now??

 

[Silvermist999]

Because you didn’t book a refundable fare which are more expensive.

The flights I paid for my family of four to fly direct from YYZ to MCO for March break were expensive enough. Plus we are still in a pandemic, LOL.

 

[wdwmom3]

The flights I paid for my family of four to fly direct from YYZ to MCO for March break were expensive enough. Plus we are still in a pandemic, LOL.

Yes but you can still fly. The borders aren’t closed and the flight isn’t cancelled. If you decide to cancel you have to go by the terms of the ticket you purchased. And they made it clear if you cancel you get credits, not a refund.

 

[MamaLema]

Yes but you can still fly. The borders aren’t closed and the flight isn’t cancelled. If you decide to cancel you have to go by the terms of the ticket you purchased. And they made it clear if you cancel you get credits, not a refund.

Yes but you can still fly. The borders aren’t closed and the flight isn’t cancelled. If you decide to cancel you have to go by the terms of the ticket you purchased. And they made it clear if you cancel you get credits, not a refund.

All your points are correct. I still feel like airlines punished people for listening to their own government guidelines and I’m bitter because we purchased before the pandemic started. If there ever should be an exception to a rule, this should be it.

 

[Silvermist999]

Yep, my point is that we purchased our flights for our March break 2020 trip and nobody I know had any idea that a PANDEMIC around the globe would be declared just days before our flight in 2020!

So of course we made the logical choice to cancel our trip just days before our flight. If we hadn’t, we would have only made it down there a couple days and then be scrambling back when borders were closed.

We should have been entitled to a refund since borders were closed at that point after we cancelled but nope. No refund. If we were talking about a couple hundred dollars, then no big deal. But we are talking literally thousands of dollars for peak season flights, that we will never get back, and when will we be comfortable travelling again using those credits. Not too many people can afford to pay that kind of money for flights. But we did and why should we be punished for it.

 

[Silvermist999]

All your points are correct. I still feel like airlines punished people for listening to their own government guidelines and I’m bitter because we purchased before the pandemic started. If there ever should be an exception to a rule, this should be it.

Yep, you are in the same situation as I am. We purchased our flights in October 2019 for our March break 2020 trip that we had to cancel because we cancelled right before they shut the borders down. No refund, no exception. Doesn’t seem logical to me. Now we are forced to keep trying to travel somewhere just to use up the travel credits. If they would just give me the refund I am entitled to, then I wouldn‘t even think of travelling when we aren’t comfortable doing so.

 

[declansdad]

Two thing:

1. The border was never closed for air travel
2. purchase insurance/travel protection.

 

[shaunacb]

Yep, you are in the same situation as I am. We purchased our flights in October 2019 for our March break 2020 trip that we had to cancel because we cancelled right before they shut the borders down. No refund, no exception. Doesn’t seem logical to me. Now we are forced to keep trying to travel somewhere just to use up the travel credits. If they would just give me the refund I am entitled to, then I wouldn‘t even think of travelling when we aren’t comfortable doing so.

You can push your travel bank expiry out by booking something you don’t really want to, then cancelling. New expiry will be 2 years from now.